Between Language and Reality: Translation in Ramon Saizarbitoria’s Martutene

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_14924
dc.title	Between Language and Reality: Translation in Ramon Saizarbitoria’s Martutene
dc.contributor.author	Kortazar Jon
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/rassegna-iberistica/2023/120/between-language-and-reality-translation-in-ramon/
dc.description.abstract	The mistrust of the possibilities of language to represent reality is among the main features of the narrative work by the Basque author Ramon Saizarbitoria. This mistrust is brought out by the wavering narration and the employ of an unreliable narrator, as well as by the author’s reflections on translation. This article will review the theoretical positions that Saizarbitoria has maintained and expressed in books and interviews: starting from the idea of translating developed in his own work, he offers a rich speculation about the function of translation in the Basque literary system. In addition, the author’s ideas about translation that appear in his novel Martutene (2012) will be analysed, namely embodied in the character Julia. The aim is to describe the grounds and forms of the wide space of representation that opens up between language and reality. Therefore, the translation practices developed by Julia will be commented upon, since translation is described as the space in which the gap between language and reality is produced in a more stable way. Through the fictional character Julia and her translation work, Saizarbitoria presents several of his own opinions and obsessions about the proper use of language in the search for the “exact name” of things.
dc.relation.ispartof	Rassegna iberistica
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 46 \| Issue 120 \| December 2023
dc.issued	2023-12-20
dc.dateAccepted	2023-11-03
dc.dateSubmitted	2023-08-25
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2037-6588
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/Ri/2037-6588/2023/21/008
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Basque novel
dc.subject	Ramón Saizarbitoria
dc.subject	Reality and fiction
dc.subject	Translation

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

Between Language and Reality: Translation in Ramon Saizarbitoria’s Martutene

Jon Kortazar Universidad del País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, España

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abstract

The mistrust of the possibilities of language to represent reality is among the main features of the narrative work by the Basque author Ramon Saizarbitoria. This mistrust is brought out by the wavering narration and the employ of an unreliable narrator, as well as by the author’s reflections on translation. This article will review the theoretical positions that Saizarbitoria has maintained and expressed in books and interviews: starting from the idea of translating developed in his own work, he offers a rich speculation about the function of translation in the Basque literary system. In addition, the author’s ideas about translation that appear in his novel Martutene (2012) will be analysed, namely embodied in the character Julia. The aim is to describe the grounds and forms of the wide space of representation that opens up between language and reality. Therefore, the translation practices developed by Julia will be commented upon, since translation is described as the space in which the gap between language and reality is produced in a more stable way. Through the fictional character Julia and her translation work, Saizarbitoria presents several of his own opinions and obsessions about the proper use of language in the search for the “exact name” of things.

Published

Dec. 20, 2023

Accepted

Nov. 3, 2023

Submitted

Aug. 25, 2023

Language

Keywords: Translation • Reality and fiction • Basque novel • Ramón Saizarbitoria

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/Ri/2037-6588/2023/21/008

Copyright: © 2023 Jon Kortazar. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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